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DVD

The Eye

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 8th, 2008

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Why god must you do this? Why does Hollywood in all its limited wisdom try to remake any and everything with the hopes that it will be good, when it just winds up becoming another EPIC FAIL? They’ve done it with The Grudge, they’ve done it with The Eye, and now I hear they might be remaking Oldboy and The Host. We’re coming up on sacred cow territory here, and quite frankly, I don’t know why these films have to be “Americanized” to appeal to the unwashed masses; I thought the whole point of them was to be appreciated on their own merits. But sure enough, the horror film genre is guilty of cannibalizing product like anyone else. See what I did there?

Star Trek The Original Series – The Complete Second Season (Remastered)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2008

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“Space…The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before !”

Paramount was bold indeed when they undertook the remaster project of the original series. Not only did they clean up the prints, but they took the decidedly risky option of redoing most of the f/x shots from the original prints.
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Step Up 2 The Streets

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 8th, 2008

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For as much as I might viscerally disagree with the creation of a film or its sequel, I lay much of the blame at you, the viewer and movie-going public. You created the furor around the Step Up series of films. You all went in droves to the first film when it was released in August 2006, when movies were winding down in the blockbuster season and thus helped it make $65 million domestically and more than $110 worldwide. It’s your fault that another film was inevitable, so in the down-turn of this past February, we got a second one. That one made about the same domestically, but made $30 million or so more and almost brought in $150 million worldwide. Count on the fact that another 90-minute film about teens dancing will be made and that the Step Up trilogy (I threw up in my mouth a little when writing that) will be complete.

Family Ties – The Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2008

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Family Ties is likely remembered most as the series that launched the career of Michael J. Fox. There’s no question that he owes a great debt to Alex Keaton. It’s almost a bit awkward now to watch him as this young, extremely conservative teenager after Fox has spent so much of his life as a liberal poster boy in the last couple of elections. Politics aside, it’s hard not to credit his performances in Family Ties and the Back To The Future films
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The Boston Strangler: The Untold Story

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 1st, 2008

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The first huge mistake this new film on The Boston Strangler makes is in the casting. If I were to mention to you The Boston Strangler and Bundy in the same sentence, who would you think about for the latter reference? I’d bet most of you would be thinking about Ted, the infamous serial killer finally electrocuted here in sunny Florida a few years back. Unfortunately that’s not who I’m talking about here. It’s none other than Bud Bundy, that hapless young pervert from Married With Children. That’s right, folks. David Faustino plays Albert De Salvo, the suspected killer.
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Mama’s Boy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 1st, 2008

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In the business of reviewing films you will definitely have your ups and downs. This week has absolutely been a downer. It seems that I can’t get a break. There are just too many bad movies out there. When I settled down to view Mama’s Boy there was a little hope. Looking at the cast you see some pretty solid names. Two veteran Godfather film actors in Diane Keaton and Eli Wallach make for a pretty good start. Jeff Daniels might not be the best out there, but he certainly has range playing plenty of fair to good comedic roles
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Best of Manswers: The Season One Top 25 Manswers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 1st, 2008

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“Can you take the dump of death”, or What’s the fastest way to get drunk”. These are the types of questions and answers that make up the Spike TV series Manswers. The idea is that the show answers those pressing questions that you guys out there might have been to afraid to ask. On first look you might get the mistaken idea that this is a copy of A&E’s far superior Mythbusters. On the surface the premise appears the same. Both shows appear to tackle the oddball question and attempt to find the truth behind the BS.
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The Take

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 1st, 2008

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John Leguizamo needs his own kind of wing in some Movie Hall of Fame. I would not say it is a typical wing, but a varied and interesting one nevertheless. He’s done mainstream movies like Ice Age, Moulin Rouge, & the Happening. John has also found himself in roles you just don’t see everyday. He’s been a Clown (Spawn), a Drag Queen (To Wong Foo), and even a Mario Brother (You really think I would fail to mention that John was Luigi in Super Mario Bros?). In The Take, he has a different character to portray. It’s a serious role and requires him to make quite the transformation and bring home an award winning performance.
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American Nudes Volumes 1 & 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2008

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Cult Epics continues its erotic archival work with these two collections of short films. Volume 1 consists of pieces from the 1940s (with at least one from 1938 thrown in), while Volume 2 deals with the 50s. The former has such amusing “documentary” shorts as “They Wear No Clothes” (*gasp*) and various comedy routines. The latter has the inevitable Irving Klaw shorts. None of these films are by any definition “good,” but they are fascinating records of the state of American sexuality at that time. Watching all of these at one sitting would be quite the chore, but then, when was the last time you read an encyclopaedia straight through? There is a similar documentary value here.
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Botched (Uncut)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 30th, 2008

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Campy blood & horror movies have always been a sore spot for me. I’m not talking about funny horror films with character like Shaun of the Dead. I’m talking about those movies that have a high amount of gore and little story to back it up. A movie that is played up for lack of acting and focuses more on how gruesome they make the average murder. Troma films immediately come to mind. However, there are times films that from their campy behavior create a story and scenes that are bearable to watch and a good ride on the couch. Perhaps we have found such a film in Botched a 2007 film directed by Kit Ryan. Just as long as it doesn’t turn into another Tripper, I think we will be alright.
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Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 29th, 2008

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Severin continues their serious play to be the go-to company for Eurosleaze with this, one of Joe D’Amato’s better efforts. We first meet Papaya (Melissa Chimenti) as she luxuriates on the beach, makes love with a fellow in a cabana – and then orally castrates him, whereupon she walks away as two minions torch the cabana. Fantasy Island, this ain’t. The action then shifts to Sara (Sirpa Lane of The Beast fame), a journalist we first see revelling in a cock fight. She hooks up with Vincent (Maurice Poli), a nuclear power executive with whom she has had a casual fling before. The two of them are drawn into Papaya’s web of sex and blood ritual. She is, in fact, part of a political group fighting back against the power company’s expropriations and pollution by any means necessary.
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Toxic

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 26th, 2008

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Welcome to Gino’s school of film art. Today I’m going to teach you how to make a modern art film. You know the kind. The type of film that no one really likes, but a lot of folks pretend to like because they think it makes them look cool. Just think how cool you’ll look when you can make one of those pretentious pieces of crap and watch phony critics go on and on about how brilliant it was. Meanwhile you laugh your behind off and cash in on the phony baloney.
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Sense & Sensibility (BBC)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 25th, 2008

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This BBC mini-series has the unenviable task of winning over audiences very likely familiar with Ang Lee and Emma Thompson’s excellent theatrical adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. And the opening scene might very alarm many a viewer: the rather steamy seduction on display does not, at first blush, seem to fit in to the comedy of manners one is expecting. The post-credit sequence is also rather more gothically melodramatic than one might anticipate (or hope for).
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Evening Shade – Season One

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 23rd, 2008

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Think of it as Coach meets Newhart. That’s about the best way I know how to describe this somewhat quirky sitcom from CBS. It was mostly intended as a television project for its star, Burt Reynolds. The character would echo Reynolds’ own life somewhat. His character, Wood Newton, was a running back who had moderate success, just as Reynolds himself had. In the show he retired to his rural hometown of Evening Shade.
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Stop-Loss

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 23rd, 2008

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It should not have come as such a surprise to me what Stop-Loss really is. It presents itself as this generation’s Deer Hunter, but it’s actually just another mindless film that, once stripped down to its essentials, is intended only to further a blatant political agenda. I keep hearing that the film is intended to honor our troops, but it presents all of them as mentally messed up idiots who are a hair away from committing crime sprees akin to Natural Born Killers.
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In Bruges

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 21st, 2008

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According to Wikipedia, Bruges is the capital of Belgium and home to the college of Europe. Much of the architecture from the 12th and 13th centuries is in good shape and preserved fairly well. The Church of Our Lady is one of the tallest brick buildings in the world. The Basilica of the Holy Blood purports to be a church that houses some blood from Christ. It also serves as the backdrop for a couple of hitmen who have to find comfort in the town for awhile in the film set in Bruges, called In Bruges.

Speed Racer: The Next Generation – The Beginning

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008

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To be bloody honest, I was never a huge fan of Speed Racer. Actually I spent most half hours watching the cartoon (in college) poking fun at it and wondering how many drinking games could be compiled by just analyzing various components. It was a serious cartoon with some brief comedic relief that did not come off as funny, what was funny was all of the seriousness of driving the Mach 5 and figuring out who this Racer X character was (it was Speed’s Older Brother, sorry if I spoiled it). Anyhow, it’s 2008. Speed Racer has experienced a resurgence including a movie and a new cartoon series. The movie hasn’t done very well but many times the cartoon can be the saving grace. It was supposed to follow a new Speed, with a mysterious past. Ooooo, well as long as no Chim-Chim or Spritle is around, we’ll be okay.
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National Lampoon’s Cattle Call

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008

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The movies of National Lampoon haven’t always had the best track record. On on the good side, we have Christmas Vacation, Van Wilder or European Vacation (Chevy Chase is gold after all). On the bad side we have movies like Senior Trip, Dorm Daze, or Dorm Daze 2 (Wretchedness has sequels?) But every once in a while, you can take a bad movie and suddenly realize that you are holding something that is worse than any National Lampoon movie to date (I don’t care what anybody says but Loaded Weapon wasn’t half bad). A movie so bad, that even Jonathan Winters or Diedrich Bader could not save it.
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SpongeBob SquarePants — Pest of the West

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2008

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If it’s Wednesday, that must mean another batch of SpongeBob cartoons. The lead-off here is the is title episode, a 22-minute piece that recounts the adventures of SpongeBuck SquarePants, our hero’s 19th-Century ancestor. The rest of the episodes are an eclectic bunch, and the thematic consistency is less than that of some other collections (there is a vague adventure link that runs through several of the stories). At any rate, the silliness is just as engaging and bizarre as ever, and there are plenty of quick absurdist sight gags to keep you chuckling.
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Night of the Living Dead

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2008

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Some years back, I reviewed Elite’s Millennium Edition of the NOTLD. That was certainly the most definitive edition at that time. So now we have another deluxe edition. How does it stack up? Before we get to that, a few (largely unnecessary) words about the film. There’s a blurb on the box that calls this “the most influential horror film since Psycho,” and there is a great deal of truth to that. As has been pointed out before, the film single-handedly transformed the mythology of the zombie, changing the monster from mindless slave to flesh-eating ghoul. I can’t think of any other instance where a mythology was changed so completely and with such finality.
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Diva

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 14th, 2008

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I don’t remember that much about Diva growing up; it was a film that I heard about as a kid, and a lot of people liked it, but that was the first time I can honestly say I was exposed to the arthouse film, and that it was something that I wanted to find out more about. Through the years, I’ve seen many a foreign or independent film, however the one that started all of it off for me I hadn’t seen, until now.

The Seeker – The Dark Is Rising

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 14th, 2008

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It’s not that these fantasy-epic films that feature a young child in the starring roles bore me, it goes to the larger notion that Hollywood will remake every child’s fantasy novel into some sort of cinematic product, so a buck or two can be made. For every Harry Potter, there’s a Golden Compass or even Spiderwick Chronicles. The well is rapidly running dry, and you needn’t look much further than The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, a film about a young lonely boy who finds himself in circumstances and an adventure beyond what he might initially suspect. Wait, doesn’t that sound like EVERY children’s movie lately?

The Ruins (Unrated Edition)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2008

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When The Ruins opens, it doesn’t look quite so promising. We’ve got two American couples sharing a vacation in Mexico. They’re reaching the end of their stay and are getting a tad bored with the sun and surf. Enter the foreign stranger who happens to have access to a secret archeological dig and invites the foursome along. Immediately I begin to suspect I’ve seen it all before. I figure the guy’s going to lead them to some isolated torture garden where sadistic maniacs will have their way with the tourists.
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Jake and the Fatman: Season One, Vol. 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2008

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They say that it isn’t over until the Fat Lady sings. Did you ever wonder what “it” was or who the heck this Fat Lady is they keep talking about? I can’t help you there, but I do know who the Fat Man is. It’s William Conrad, who came back to television in 1987 as J.L. McCabe, better known as “the Fatman”. McCabe was one of those tough as nails district attorneys. He was actually an ex-cop, so had great criminal instincts. McCabe wasn’t above bending the law to put away the bad guy, and he wasn’t considered a very friendly type of fellow. He majored in stubbornness and plain speaking.
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Cannon: Season One, Vol. 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2008

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William Conrad was no stranger to audiences when Cannon joined the Quinn Martin stable of television dramas. In fact, most folks knew his voice before they got to know his trademark girth. Conrad was the original Matt Dillon when Gunsmoke was a radio drama. When the drama entered the visual medium of television, even Conrad admitted later that the audience, who thought of him as tall and handsome, would have been disappointed. His voice lent authority to any role he played, and on radio his size was never an issue.
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